Sainsbury's cans DVD rentals

Not pukka

Sainsbury's is dumping its online DVD rental service. The website will be hauled down tomorrow, with punters redirected to Sainsbury's erstwhile partner in the venture, Lovefilm.

The supermarket said although the offer of unlimited rentals, priced from £7.97 per month for one DVD at a time, had been a hit, a review had said it didn't fit in with the rest of the online strategy. Tesco continues to offer DVD rentals, also from £7.97 per month.

Sainsbury's now intends to concentrate on Amazon's turf - online sales of DVDs, CDs and books - as the former number one supermarket attempts to claw its way back from years of falling market share.

The two biggest online rental players, Lovefilm and Screen Select, will soon merge under the Lovefilm brand, and control more than half the UK DVD by-post market. ®